The low-hanging fruit of European capital markets

Europe’s economy is too dependent on bank finance. A greater reliance on capital markets would help to boost the region's economic growth and resilience in future financial crises. To this end, the European Commission is aiming to create a capital markets union (CMU) in an effort to lower Europe’s dependence on bank finance and encourage the integration and deepening of its capital markets. But there are plenty of obstacles. Jonathan Hill, the EU’s finance commissioner, is sensibly focusing on the lower hanging fruit. But even these ‘early action’ measures will take time to implement, and as such will not improve Europe’s short-term economic prospects.